The Texas megachurch founder who stepped away from his congregation last year over a mystery “sin” has been restored to ministry, describing his absence as an “extremely challenging time.”
Pastor Tony Evans “successfully completed this restoration journey” and has been welcomed back to the Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship Church in Dallas on Sunday, according to CBS News.
Evans, 75, was greeted with a roaring standing ovation from the congregation when he appeared on stage after he stepped down as the church’s leader in June 2024.
“As you know, this last year has been an extremely challenging time – a time of being separated from what I love most – the proclamation of God’s word,” Evans said in a video posted on YouTube following the announcement of his return.
“A lot of that was due to my own fault, and I had to go through a period of repentance and restoration so that healing could take place. The good news is our God is a god of restoration,” he added.
While the church’s elder board praised how Evans handled his moral failure — which was never disclosed — he is not expected to return to a leadership capacity, according to CBS News.
Instead, the church announced that Evans’ son, Jonathan, will step into the role of lead pastor.
Evans — the former chaplain for both the Dallas Cowboys and the Mavericks — said he “committed no crime” but “did not use righteous judgment in my actions when he stepped down from his role last year.
“A number of years ago, I fell short of that standard,” he said during his resignation.
“I am, therefore, required to apply the same biblical standard of repentance and restoration to myself that I have applied to others.”
The details of the “sin” Evans committed were never shared publicly.
The Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship was started by Evans in 1976 as a Bible study group, according to the church’s website.
It has grown to over 10,000 members and 100 different ministries reaching people “locally and abroad.”
Evans, who is also the author of several bestselling worship books, hosts the daily, worldwide radio show “The Alternative,” which airs in over 130 countries.
His return to the ministry comes days after fellow Texas megachurch pastor Robert Morris pleaded guilty Thursday to five counts of lewd and indecent acts with a child in the 1980s in Oklahoma.
Morris was the senior pastor of Gateway Church in the Dallas-Fort Worth suburb of Southlake, where he led one of the nation’s largest megachurches until his resignation.
He was indicted earlier this year by an Oklahoma grand jury after a woman in Oklahoma accused the pastor of sexually abusing her when she was 12.
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